


To Survive

by FreakyVintageWallpapers



Category: God of War (Video Games)
Genre: No beta reader, mentions of his old family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-28
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-05-29 21:59:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15082613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreakyVintageWallpapers/pseuds/FreakyVintageWallpapers
Summary: Kratos began the lonely walk back to their cabin with his frozen son in his arms. He needed to light a fire if they were to make it through the night.





	To Survive

Faye crept as silently as she could to her son’s bed. It was only three quick steps but it made her breath labored, and white spots danced in her vision. Nevertheless she pushed on. Faye caught herself on his bed frame and steadied her stance. She felt his forehead. He was warm against the back of her hand but she guessed anything would feel warm in the biting cold.    
  
Atreus was bundled under all the furs she could find despite his constant reminder that he hadn’t been sick in an entire winter. She wasn’t taking any chances though and insisted on bundling him every night no matter how weak she was getting. Faye slowly began to untangle him from his mass of furs until he was only covered by his sleeping gown. In actuality it was a shirt Faye had made for her husband but he preferred to be bare chested no matter what the weather called for.    
  
She rested her hands on the cot and caught her breath. It felt as though all her organs were being pulled down and her legs aches at being forced to stand. Atreus shivered, and curled in on himself. She needed to act before he woke up. Faye took in a shaky breath and slowly pushed her arms under him.    
  
He opened up his eyes and the whole world seemed to pause. His eyelids immediately dropped and his breathing evened. She stood still until she was sure he had fallen back to sleep. Slowly she pulled him into her arms and she stumbled back to her bed. Atreus’s weight, though lighter than she’d like it to be, was too much for her already aching muscles and she stumbled forward.    
  
She dropped to her knees, Atreus rolling out of her arms. Atreus’s head connected with the wooden frame of she and her husband's bed. Immediately he was awake whimpering and rubbing at where he had been hit. She leapt forward and tried to brush back his hair with her hand in an attempt to apologize but nausea over took her from the quick movement. She emptied the contents of her stomach all over her son.    
  
Atreus yelped, still disoriented and hurting. Kratos was up in an instant, pushing back his furs and leaping from the bed, his knife already drawn.    
  
His eyes adjusted quickly to the dark and his heart dropped into his stomach. Faye was on her knees trying to wipe the bile from her mouth and Atreus was reaching out for her, cooing soft words to his upset mother while keeping a firm hand on the back his head.    
  
“It’s okay, mother. It’s okay.” Atreus tried even though he still didn’t understand what was happening, but Faye continued sobbing.    
  
“Faye, what’s wrong?” Kratos whispered. He couldn’t find his voice as he watched the woman he loved grow sicker by the second.    
  
“Bring him to bed with us, please. Bring him to bed.” She hacked up what was left in her throat and pointed to Atreus.    
  
“He can sleep in his own bed.” Kratos walked forward and brought his wife into his arms as she tried to do with her son. He looked down at the boy and could smell the bile covering his legs and shirt.    
  
“Please.” Faye muttered, drawing in a ragged breath. Kratos didn’t want to put her down, but he eased her back to her side of the bed. He smoothed the hair out of her face and he could see it in her eyes.    
  
He could see it. He nodded silently and turned back to his son.    
  
“Come, boy.” He helped him up and towards the door where Kratos had sat their refilled water buckets earlier that day.   
  
Atreus stripped himself of his shirt. He didn’t care that the water was cold it just felt good to wipe away the vomit covering his skin. Kratos stepped away once he was sure he could manage and dug through a chest under the workbench, searching for something to protect his son from the biting air.   
  
“I’m done, Father.” Atreus wrapped his arms around himself, his mind still trying to process what had happened. Kratos found one of Faye's old night dress that she had worn when she was pregnant with their son. He pulled Atreus close and helped him into it. It was much too large and long for his boy’s small frame but it would do. Kratos tied a knot to the side so Atreus could walk without a fear of tripping.    
  
“To our bed.” Kratos instructed. Atreus all but ran back to his mother’s side and she pulled him into her arms. She muttered broken apologies that Atreus shushed away. Kratos found the discarded cover and slowly slid back into the bed. He hovered as close as he could to the edge, just watching Faye cling to their child.    
  
Kratos swore that he had seen the same scene somewhere before. Maybe it could have been when Atreus had first fallen ill as a toddler and Kratos insisted they all be close in case it turned for the worse. Or maybe it was a long forgotten memory, of a little girl that used to sneak into he and his lover’s room every time a nightmare invaded her dreams, that brought on the sense of deja vu. He quickly pushed those thoughts away.    
He had to focus on the present.

  
Faye looked up from her son and tugged at her husband’s hand. Kratos reluctantly moved closer until Atreus’s back was pressed against his chest. Atreus tensed at the foreign contact but Faye payed no attention. She guided Kratos’s hand to rest on her hip so that his elbow rested on Atreus’s shoulder and she gently laid her arm across her son to rest her hand on Kratos’s side.    
  
She exhaled slowly and the whole forest seemed to let go of a breath it was holding. Faye leaned forward and Kratos did the same. The boy looked up to watch as his parent’s touched foreheads. Faye peeked down at him and brushed his hair with her fingers.    
  
“I must ask you both a favor.” She slowly closed her eyes and relaxed.    
  
“When I die I want you to burn my body.” She stopped to cough, but Kratos didn’t move away from her afraid to miss a word of her request.    
  
“Kratos, Atreus, I want you both to climb to the highest peak in all of the nine realms. And I- I want you to-“ She sat up as fast as she could and vomited beside the bed. Atreus pushed himself against his  Father and Atreus could swear he felt Kratos do the same. Faye slowly lowered herself back down in the bed and resumed her position, not caring about the puddle of vomit now spreading under the bed.    
  
“I want you both to spread my ashes on the highest peak of the nine realms. Only make this journey if you’re sure you both will come home in one piece. Only when you are both ready.” She managed to force out. Atreus hated to hear her talk like this, but he didn’t have the strength to tell her to stop. He had come to terms when she had asked them both to prepare themselves for the inevitable weeks ago.   
  
Atreus knew what her last sentence was directed towards, but he had no reason to be sick now. Not when his mother needed him most. Kratos hadn’t shed a tear since the night his son was born, but he could feel his throat close as they threatened to rise in his eyes.    
  
“Yes, Faye.” Kratos pulled her and his son closer to him and refused to let go.   
  
“Yes, Mother.” Atreus buried himself into his mother stomach.    
  
They laid in silence for a long time. Atreus drifted off, but Kratos could not rest. Faye was watching him closely and he couldn’t tear his eyes away from her. He glanced at his son one last time to make sure he was asleep before he pushed his lips against his wife’s.    
  
He tried to convey every word, every emotion, every thanks he wanted to give her all within the kiss. Faye weakly kissed back, trying to ignore the tears falling down her cheeks.    
  
“I love you, Kratos.”    
  
“I will not be able to go on without you, Faye.”    
  
———   
  
Atreus awoke to his parents having a hushed conversation. His father was no longer behind him, instead he could feel the large weight dipping at the end of the bed near his feet.    
  
“Go on. I don’t want you here when it happens.”   
  
“How long?” His father almost sounded like he was pleading with his mother.    
  
“Two days. Two days, my love.”    
  
Atreus shifted and blinked up at his mother. Slowly he left pulled himself up to sit.    
  
“Father? Where are you going?” With his mother to his back Atreus gave his father a knowing look, only putting the curiosity in his voice. Kratos turned back to him and his frown deepened. Atreus couldn’t help but think it was something he had done.

  
“Atreus, get dressed. We are hunting-“    
  
Atreus gasped as his mother threw her arms around him.    
  
“No!” She barked. Atreus flinched and gave his father a pleading look. Kratos reached to put a comforting hand on his wife’s leg but she pulled away.    
  
“He must stay.” Her face softened from anger to a deepening sadness.    
  
“Faye I-“    
  
“It’ll be alright, Kratos. Tell your father you’ll be fine Atreus.” Faye ran her hand up and down her son’s back, trying to coax him. Kratos had no idea what madness overcame her, but the desperation in her eyes reminded him of a cornered animal. As if she were only running on instinct.   
  
Atreus looked like he was going to cry, and he turned away from his father.    
  
“I’ll be alright.” He confirmed. Kratos couldn’t deny the pride he felt rising in his chest despite the severity of the moment. Atreus was so strong, even now as he watched his mother fade. Kratos was filled with an underlying satisfaction knowing that Atreus was so loyal to his mother that he wouldn’t deny her last plea even if it meant having to watch her go.   
  
“Very well.” He pulled on his boots, and began to strap his knife to his belt.    
  
“No, Kratos. Take my axe.”    
  
Atreus blanched, and Kratos paused. The man took a deep gulp of air, keeping his eyes focused on the wall in front of him. Slowly he nodded and stalked over to the wall where her weapon hung. Kratos stopped at the door turning back as if to say something. 

  
He looked at his son, being clung to by his mother. Faye, even though dying right before his eyes, was still so beautiful in the early morning light. The sun drifting in from the hole in the roof caught the fire still burning in her eyes. He wanted to remember her like this, like the burning light she was. His throat clenched, and he walked through the door.

  
Faye tugged at her son’s shirt, and guided him to lay on her outstretched arm. 

  
“It is so early, let us go back to bed.”

———

  
Faye, despite her insisting the need for two days, did not make it through the first afternoon. She had let Atreus get up only to fetch books for him to read and tell stories to her. They talked about everything and nothing. About the stories and the gods.  They talked nothing of Kratos, of what was going to become of her, of what would become of him. 

  
Before the sun had even reached its peak she had settled herself under the blankets for the last story and beckoned her child closer. Atreus was sitting on his father’s pillow, a book in his lap. He gently set it aside and pressed himself close to his mother. 

“My darling, Atreus. Go to the edge of the garden and search for the red flowers we planted.” 

  
“Mother, no!” He cried, and nestled closer to her.

“I don’t want to be alone.” Atreus couldn’t hold back his tears. He had been strong since his father had left but it was too much to bare.

  
“Shh, my child.” She wrapped him up in her arms and kissed his tears away. Now she wished more than anything that she hadn’t been selfish enough to make her son stay. The distress in his voice was making her heart break, but she had needed to say goodbye with him. She needed this last morning just as much as he would when he looked back on it. 

  
“It will all be alright. You’ll have your father to look after you, and you will look after him. You will never be alone.” She tried to summon enough energy to sound as convincing as possible, but her voice was breaking. She stroked the line of wild red locks.

“You will never be alone. Go on, love.” She let go with one more kiss to his cheek even though she wanted to hold him until she was gone.

  
Atreus slowly removed himself from her bed. He dressed as slowly as he could, wanting to make every second in her presence count. He sat on her bed as his father did to pull on his boots. 

  
He turned around and crawled up the bedding and planted a kiss on her cheek. His cheeks were wet again and she didn’t have the strength to lift her hand up and wipe them away. 

  
“The red flowers darling. The ones we planted together.”

  
“I love you, Mother.”  He moved back now. The last physical contact he made with his mother was brushing a stray lock of wild red hair away from her eyes.

  
“I love you, my darling Atreus.” She smiled as warmly as she could to try to comfort. It was in vain, she knew, but she had to try.

  
Atreus couldn’t control his sobs as he forced himself out of the door. 

———

  
Kratos returned on the second night to find his wife covered in a thin blanket with red flowers covering her entire body. He ran a gentle hand from her shoulder to her chest to her stomach. 

She was ice cold and not just from the natural cycle her body was going through. There was a lack of general heat in their house, Atreus had not lit the fire since he left. No embers illuminated the house, the only light left in their house was the moon filtering in from the roof. 

  
Kratos slowly stepped away from Faye’s body and looked for his son. 

  
“Boy?” He checked under their bed and then Atreus’. Still on his knees, he glanced around to the corners of the room, trying to see where his son could be hiding. 

  
“Atreus?” He felt a slight panic as he pulled himself up to stand. Kratos cursed at himself. He ran outside and looked up through the trees to see if he might have climbed. 

  
What if his boy had done something drastic? Kratos would be lying if he said he hadn’t thoughct of deciding his own fate before, but the thought of his son thinking the same thing made his entire body seize in fear. He couldn’t lose them both, not like this.

  
“Atreus!” Kratos yelled, he ran to the back of the house and saw nothing. There were no footprints, tracks, no sign of his son at all. He racked his brain trying to think of where his son could have possibly fled to. 

  
The red petals on Faye’s body had to have come from somewhere.   
Kratos ran full speed towards Faye’s garden. A sigh of relief left him. He saw him, leaning against a towering oak at the edge of their small garden. Atreus’s eyes were closed, tears frozen to his cheek. His clothes were soiled and his hands caked in mud up to his elbows. Kratos looked around the garden once more and saw that the boy had destroyed all of Faye’s work. 

  
The vegetables were uprooted and flowers pulled out and stomped on. His son had made the whole garden suffer his wrath. He let out another deep sigh. He made his way over to his son who was letting out ragged breaths. His father gently pulled him into his arms, the boy’s head fell into the crook of his neck. He felt like ice against Kratos’s skin and the man began to worry that the weather would take his son from him just as Faye he left him.

Kratos began the lonely walk back to their cabin with his frozen son in his arms. He needed to light a fire if they were to make it through the night.

**Author's Note:**

> One of many God of War fics I’m excited to be posting! This was the first one and it feels great to write again!


End file.
